The story could be reminiscent of an English remake of the film Life is a long quiet river. For the first time across the Channel, a case of baby exchange in the maternity ward was revealed, 55 years later. The two English families are today demanding compensation from the hospital, reports the BBC in an article spotted by The Parisian.
It all started with a simple DNA test offered at Christmas 2021 to the eldest brother of four children from a family like there are thousands in England. But when the results come back, something is wrong: instead of the first name of his sister, Jessica, that of another person, of the same age: Claire. (First names have been changed by the BBC.)
The man will then contact Claire to try to dispel her doubts. The fifty-year-old had also carried out a DNA test received by her son as a birthday present two years earlier. Very quickly, they realize that Claire was born at the same time and place as Jessica, 55 years earlier. And the theory of an exchange of babies at the maternity ward begins to emerge…
Lives exchanged
That Sunday in 1967 Claire's biological mother, Joan, was admitted to a hospital in the West Midlands. She wanted to give birth at home, reports the BBC, but her high blood pressure didn't allow it. Around 10 p.m., the snow fell and a little girl was born. Joan met her baby a few minutes before she was taken to the nursery to let her rest.
The next day, the little one was brought back to her for presentation to the rest of the family. She has light hair unlike her parents but Joan, too happy to have her first daughter, didn't pay attention to it. In reality, this light-haired baby was Jessica, born a few hours after Claire, just after midnight.
For years Claire and Jessica lived not far from each other but not in the “good” family. Claire also passed through her biological parents' village every day to go to work. When he first met Joan, the one who had always felt like “an impostor” in a family where she looked like no one else was finally able to see from whom she had inherited her eyes. However, she will never know her biological father, who died around ten years earlier.
Obtain repair
Of course, Joan and her eldest son also had to warn Jessica. For her part, Claire also had to reveal the truth to the one who raised her. She also had difficulty admitting to Joan that her childhood had been “very difficult” during which she found herself “in extreme poverty » et “often hungry”.
Today both families want to obtain compensation. The National Health Service (NHS), the public health system of the United Kingdom, has recognized this “terrible mistake”. Two years after the revelations of the DNA test, the amount of compensation is still being evaluated.
Meanwhile, Claire and Joan continue to discover each other and even went on vacation together. Jessica cannot do the same with her biological mother: she died about a year ago.
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